


So Your Mom’s Crazy Too?

by Zxiama



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Storybrooke (Once Upon a Time)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-06 00:38:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20497994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zxiama/pseuds/Zxiama
Summary: In a modern-day Storybrooke, Emma and Regina are teenagers who find common ground when their respective care-givers, Ingrid and Cora, are found fighting over a magical artefact. With no physical proof for the existence of magic, both girls want answers as to what secrets their parents are keeping from them and work together to recover the artefact. Emma uses a diary to record her thoughts and feelings about all that is happening until Regina discovers the diary and is scared to discover Emma’s true feelings.





	1. Dear Diary

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flyingbluebirds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingbluebirds/gifts).
  * Inspired by [So your Mom`s crazy too? - FANART](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20377789) by [flyingbluebirds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingbluebirds/pseuds/flyingbluebirds). 

> Taking part in such a big, collaborative event like SQSN is amazing, and I want to thank everybody involved for all their help. The other writers were all very helpful whenever writer's block struck, or if I just couldn't remember the word I was trying to think of, and made this whole process so much easier.  
Also a huge thank you to flyingbluebirds for the beautiful art; everytime I see it I smile.

Dear Diary,

Wow, that sounds so stupid! Ingrid is making me write down my feelings or whatever in a diary. She said she wouldn’t read it, but she’s watching me from the other end of the room to make sure I write something. So, yeah. Hi.

My name is Emma Swan, I’m 16 years old and I DO NOT need to write a diary. Ingrid says that I have too many pent-up feelings and “since I refuse to share them with anybody else, I should at least write them down.” I don’t see what the big deal is. Why do I have to tell everybody about my feelings anyway? Who would give a crap? Besides, it’s not like I’m all that hard to understand- I’m just your regular abandoned-in-the-woods-as-a-baby girl.

* * *

Hi, me again. 

So, Ingrid and I just had a huge argument and she’s making write in here again. She keeps going on at me about making something of my life. “You could be so special, Emma”, “You need to discover who you really are”, blah blah blah. I don’t even know what that means. She doesn’t tell me what she thinks I should do, it’s just vague stuff like that.

We used to be so close, but she’s starting to get really weird. It’s hard to explain; at first it was so nice to have somebody who actually gave a damn about me, but now it feels suffocating, like she thinks I’m some kind of hero and I just want to be a normal kid.

The other day, I had to have a meeting with her and Mr. Spencer to discuss my behaviour. It was horrible. He kept trying to tell her that I was a thug who beat up other kids, she was trying to make out that I’m some kind of selfless hero, and I was just sitting there trying to force the ground to swallow me up.

Here’s what really happened: I came across Killian Jones teasing some boy by the science building and when I told him to lay off him, he started towards me. Just because he’s good-looking he thinks he can have whatever he wants. He tried to imply that I had only spoken to him because I have a crush on him and then he told me to kiss him. When I didn’t, he grabbed my arm, and as he was moving his lips towards mine, my fist just happened to intercept him. It was a pretty good punch; I think he actually cried a little, but then he just smiled at me and said that that “wasn’t the sort of kiss he’d had in mind”. I think he likes me. Anyway, our King and Dictator, Mr. Spencer, saw the incident and for some reason is only punishing me.

* * *

Ok, I can’t talk to anybody about this, but I also can’t stop thinking about it.

Something really weird happened to me today. Ingrid picked me up from school so that we could go to the mall, we were in a clothes shop that didn’t sell anything I liked, so I found a seat in the corner while Ingrid was looking around. Then this boy came in- he was about my age and he didn’t see me, Ingrid’s bag was open and in a second he had taken out her clutch, tucked it into his jacket and headed out of the door. I got straight up and shouted at him to stop, running after him. When he saw me, he ran too and we both went sprinting across the mall, people were jumping out of our way and shouting at us- I think they thought we were just dumb kids playing. He was nearly at the exit and nobody was going to stop him! Even though I was catching up a little, I knew he would make the door before I could catch up and then I’d lose him outside.

Then it happened. As I realized I’d lost, I yelled in frustration, and the shop window next to him just shattered all at once. Everyone was really shocked, and the boy had to duck, and cover his face for protection, which gave me enough time to catch up to him and pin him down. He didn’t really fight me taking back the clutch because he was still freaked out, but when I had it, I slackened my grip and he pushed me off and ran for it.

Everybody was staring at me, crouching in the middle of all that broken glass and I saw Ingrid jogging towards me. She was smiling like a maniac and came straight to give me a hug saying “You did it!”. I gave her back the clutch, she just kept grinning and saying stuff like “I’m so proud of you!”.

The owner of the shop whose window had exploded came out, and said he hoped we were going to pay for the damage. Somebody in the crowd told him that was stupid- that I didn’t do it and it was clearly his faulty window and then everybody was arguing about what had happened.

In the confusion, Ingrid and I slipped away and agreed to just go back to the car. When we sat in the car, she said: ‘I’ve been waiting for this day for so long, Emma! You can’t imagine how long, and now your day has come! You can finally be everything you were meant to be!’ She was starting to scare me now, so I asked her what the hell she was talking about, she told me that she had seen what I did to the glass- she actually thought that had somehow made the glass shatter on purpose. Then I said that I hadn’t, and she argued that maybe I didn’t think I meant to do it but that my subconscious mind had made it happen. She was getting more and more insistent, saying that my shout had caused the glass to shatter, so I conceded that maybe my voice had caused it, like when a singer might shatter a wine glass. That was when she gripped my arm and said to me very seriously: ‘That was not just some freak accident, Emma. You have always had magic in you, and now, finally, it has shown itself!’

It was weird to hear her say it out loud, after all this time; she’s been hinting at this for ages, and I just kept hoping that it was going to be something normal. Well, now she’s finally said it. And I wasn’t really shocked, because I felt like I should have known all along that it was going to be something like this. That there must have been something intrinsically wrong with her when she took me in and kept saying that I was going to do something special. I should have known that she was a nut job. But I was too stupid, too flattered to notice.

I just sat there in that car staring at her incredulously, and then I opened the door, and I walked away. She called after me, but I guess she knew that following me wouldn’t help.

After that I just wondered around, not really planning where I was going but just trying to clear my head, when I found myself in the park. I sat down on the farthest bench, which is part hidden by the tree. It’s one of my favourite places to be alone. I sat there for a long time, thinking back over my time with Ingrid, all the things she had said or done which should have warned me she was a psycho. I don't know how long I sat there, but eventually I was awoken by voices.

Killian Jones was there, with a beautiful girl I recognised as Regina Mills. Regina is the daughter of Cora Mills, a terrifying woman who basically runs this district. She is the most beautiful girl in school and everybody treats her like royalty.

Regina’s phone rang.

‘It’s just my mother.’ She said.

‘You’re not going to answer her?’ Killian asked, surprised.

‘No, I’m not. It’ll drive her mad.’

‘And that’s what you desire?’

Regina swung around to look at Killian, smiling a sly smile as she did. ‘Always.’ She said.

Killian chuckled before asking her ‘So, what do you want to do next, love?’

He actually called her love- I nearly barfed.

‘Hmm,’ Regina had taken both his hands in hers now, ‘I want to find out why my mother was in Spencer’s office yesterday.’

‘Ah. Anything that’s not to do with your mother?’ Killian moved his body closer to Regina’s, ‘I had a few things in mind.’

In that moment I was willing her to sucker punch him for being so smarmy, and I swear Regina looked like she was considering it, but then all at once she was kissing him. By this point, I had moved from the bench and was crouched completely in the tree- I had a feeling that they wouldn’t be too happy if they spotted me watching them. Seeing them like that, with their tongues in each other's mouths, made me surprisingly angry, I guess it's just because I hate seeing that pig happy. I’m sure Regina must know what he's like; she seems really intelligent, but I think she uses people like toys sometimes. I’ve seen her strutting about school with her ridiculous followers and I don’t think she actually likes a single one of them; she’s always yelling at them.

When the pair pulled apart, Regina, her hands on Killian’s chest, pushed him away as she said ‘See you tomorrow’ and quickly turned on her heels. She walked with so much purpose that in the dark, and through the leaves of the bush, it looked almost as if she was floating.

When I crawled out of the bush, I felt really strange. I wasn’t sure if it was because of what happened earlier, or because of the scene I had just witnessed, but I also knew that I still wasn’t ready to go home, so I moved over to the kids play area. There’s a little wooden castle here and that’s where I’m sitting now. There aren’t really many small children that live here so it doesn’t get used very often and I’ve found a little fox hole underneath it that seems to be abandoned. After everything I’ve written in here, I think I’m going to find a box to store the diary in and hide it down there.

* * *

Back here in my new favourite spot. My castle is the perfect place at night, and now that I repurposed an old tool box I found in the school utility closet, I can safely leave my diary here. I guess Ingrid was right about me writing a diary. It does help.

I’ve just been reading back about all that shit that happened the other night and weirdly enough it’s Regina I’m most interested in. I don’t know how to process everything that happened with Ingrid, I still feel numb, and we’re both pretending like it didn’t happen. But there was something Regina said about her mother sneaking into Spencer’s office- if there’s any dirt to be had on that asshole, I’m interested.

* * *

I went to the diner for lunch today, and Regina and her little posse showed up, I stayed at the bar with my hot chocolate, not really hungry for food, but they slotted into a booth. The girls were chatting excitedly about something, but Regina wasn’t really listening; she was on her phone and only spoke when one of the girls asked her a direct question:

‘Well, who are you going with Regina?’

‘What? Going where?’

‘The prom.’

‘Oh, I haven’t decided yet.’

‘But you have to decide soon, Gina! We can’t pick until you have, all the boys will want to go with you!’

‘I’ve told you before, my name is Regina; I don’t do nicknames.’

‘Ok, sorry. Aren’t you interested in anyone? You haven’t dated for ages!’ 

That was interesting, I thought. Her silly friends didn’t know that anything was going on between her and Killian. Unfortunately, there’s only so long you can nurse a hot chocolate before it looks suspicious, so I couldn’t stick around any longer than I did.

I guess I’d better head home soon. I think Ingrid’s going to want to talk about the other night: every time I see her it’s like she’s psyching herself up to do something and then she just pretends it never happened.

Night.

* * *

The saga continues. When I got back last night, I found Ingrid searching the house with a fine toothcomb. She looked really scared when I came in and started asking me where I’d been and what I’d been doing, after a while, she relaxed with the interrogation and told me that something of hers had gone missing, and that she thought it had been stolen. I tried asking her what it was and she wouldn’t say exactly- just that it was an item of personal value. It’s not like her to keep secrets from me, or at least, as far as I know. I can normally tell when people are lying to me, and Ingrid doesn’t do that, but she’s definitely hiding something now.

Anyway, she asked me to go and make us both hot chocolates downstairs, when she came down, she was calmer and sat down with me to talk. She told me that she was really sorry for scaring me the other day, and that she could see that it was an irrational thing to say. She said that she’s been under a lot of stress at work lately, stuff like that. She tried to convince me that she hadn’t really believed the stuff she was saying, but then she looked at me and kind of deflated.

‘You’re using your superpower, aren’t you?’ she said ‘You know I’m lying? Fine. I do believe in magic, and maybe you think that makes me crazy. But you believe you have a superpower, right? And I believe you. You don’t have to agree with what I was saying the other day, but can you at least try to be open-minded about it? Believing something that isn’t true doesn’t make you crazy.’

I wasn’t really sure. To be honest, I think that is exactly the definition of crazy, but she’s right about my superpower- it has never let me down.

We had a long talk, and she agreed that she’s going to let me be a normal kid, no magical prodigy agenda. She asked me where I go in the evenings, she tried to tell me to get more sleep, to be home at reasonable times, but I convinced her not to worry. She’s never been too strict on curfews and she trusts me to not be doing anything stupid. I just told her I like to be alone in the dark; it calms me. She laughed and called me an emo and then we watched _The Conjuring_ together. I love the fact that she can go from telling me to get more sleep one second, to starting a horror film with me at 1 in the morning the next. We went to bed at 4, and I have no regrets. I forgot how much fun we have together.


	2. First Contact

Quick update: this morning we were both exhausted. Ingrid jumped in the shower while I scrambled some eggs. She had left her phone in the kitchen, and while she was gone, she got a text from an unknown number. It just said:

‘Want it back? 1pm, my house.’

It’s 11.15 right now; I’ve bunked off school and I’m at my castle. I turned on find my phone on Ingrid’s phone- good thing for me that she’s so bad with technology, no way she’ll notice. I feel bad for breaking her trust like this; we’ve always respected each other’s privacy, but she’s been so weird lately and I just feel like whatever’s going on is something to do with her crazy theory.

* * *

It was Cora Mills! She went to Cora Mills’ house!

When I got there, I circled the outside of the house and saw that they were in the back room. I could see them fine if I crouched in the shrubbery by the window, but I had no idea what they were saying. If only I could have put a bug in her bag or something, but that’s not something I just happen to have on my possession. Maybe if espionage becomes a hobby of mine, I should get on that. Anyway, I got a little from watching their discussion.

Cora doesn’t really look as powerful as she is. When she was talking to Ingrid, she was just smiling and sipping tea and could have been any mother having a casual chat. Ingrid looked less comfortable and even though she was sat with the cup and saucer in her hand, her face was fierce. She doesn’t ever look at me like that- it was scary to see.

They didn’t talk for very long, and then Ingrid set her cup down on the table and left, without waiting for Cora to respond. Cora didn’t look phased at all and just stayed there drinking her tea and smiling. I guess whatever had happened, Cora won.

I’m not really sure what to do next. How to find out what the hell is going. But now that I know that Cora is involved there’s a lot more to think about. Didn’t Regina say that Cora had been meeting with Mr Spencer? Maybe that’s my next lead. I wonder if he has anything interesting in his office.

* * *

I’ve made a plan to break into Spencer’s office on Monday. He normally lurks around the around the front gate in the mornings so that he can yell at tardy students, so I’m going to get into school early and take my chance then. The staff room is opposite his office, but I’m relying on the teachers not being too awake at that time on a Monday. Getting the key will be easy; our caretaker, Leroy, is totally incompetent. I’ve borrowed plenty of things from his office and I know he leaves his master keys in there when he gets his morning coffee. I’ll just have to put them back somewhere he’ll believe he left them by accident.

Ok, so it’s not the most detailed plan, but I’ll play it by ear.

* * *

Getting into Spencer’s office was shockingly easy. Unfortunately, a quick sweep of the room was enough to show me that there wasn’t anything of interest there. Even once I jimmied open the locked bottom drawer, I only found a bunch of financial reports for the school which seemed fairly standard. But then, underneath that pile was a little post-it note with his computer password on it.

Seriously. Old people.

So, I logged onto his computer.

His email password was the same as his computer login, and I immediately found an email chain with Cora. The emails were mostly quite vague and usually referred to things they had clearly discussed in person, but what was clear was that Cora had asked Spencer to get her an object. I had no clue what that object might be, except for the fact that it was probably the thing that Ingrid had been so scared of having lost. When I looked at his browser history, I found that soon after an early email from Cora regarding this object, he had made multiple searches about amnesia. He had searched about the causes of amnesia, selective amnesia, and then there was a search about memory loss in folklore.

By that point I’d been in there a while and I was aware that I needed to get out before Spencer came back, so I had to log off and leave. The staff room was busier now, and I had to sprint when a clear getaway came. Still, I got away clean.

Or so I thought.

When I got to my locker, Regina Mills was waiting for me, leaning with her back against it.

I’d never seen her this close up before, since we’ve never spoken. She’s a senior, I’m a junior and let’s be honest, kind of a loner. Regina is pretty much the most intimidating person I’ve ever met- and I don’t get intimidated easy. She just has this aura, like everything she looks at, she owns.

At that moment, she was looking at me.

‘Quite the criminal mastermind, aren’t we Swan?’ I just kind of stood there looking like an idiot and she carried on. ‘Stealing from Spencer’s office, trespassing on my land, and didn’t I hear you vandalised some poor shopkeeper’s store window? Not to mention that attack on Storybrooke High’s sweetheart, Killian Jones. Such aggression!’

I could not understand how Regina Mills knew so much about me, but I realized while I was standing there in shock that I had to respond somehow, so I replied, ‘I didn’t take anything from Spencer’s office.’

‘Oh. Well that is disappointing. I had hoped you might have some information for me, but never mind. You want a job done, I guess you have to do it yourself.’

She started to walk away, her long, high ponytail swishing imperiously.

‘Wait!’ I yelled. I hope it didn’t sound too desperate. ‘I didn’t say I didn’t learn anything. Why are you so interested?’

‘That’s my business, Swan. But I’m prepared to discuss it with you after school if you have anything useful to contribute. Do you have anything to offer me?’

Honestly, I thought I didn’t have much, but I tried to look her confidently in the eyes as I said ‘Yes’.

* * *

As I was emptying my locker after class, Regina walked past and hissed in my ear, ‘the harbor in 30 minutes.’ I hadn't seen her approach, and the sensation of her suddenly breathing down my neck made me shiver. by the time I looked round, she was already halfway down the corridor.

Half an hour later I was strolling in the sea air with Regina Mills. I asked her what the rest of her girl gang were up to, and she paused a second before admitting they were in cheerleading practise. Even though it makes total sense that Regina is the popular girl, and everybody worships her, in a lot of ways she doesn’t really fit the stereotype. I tried to imagine her cheerleading and burst out laughing.

‘You’re not feeling the school spirit then?’ I asked her.

‘I don’t need to spend my time cheering for other people.’

She actually said it like that. I think I just raised my eyebrows.

Then we got down to business. She asked me what information I had, and started to tell her about Spencer’s email correspondence with Cora, but she interrupted me to tell me that she already knew; she had hacked her mom’s emails. I was starting to get a little rattled when she said, ‘Anything else?’ What did I know? I had only just discovered that morning that Cora and Ingrid even knew each other, and I had no idea why Regina was so interested.

Before telling her any more, I managed to convince her to give me some information first, and I asked her how she knew I had been at her house. She told me that she was eavesdropping on Ingrid and Cora by leaving her phone hidden in the back room on record, and had been hiding across the street when she saw me; she’s got their whole conversation on tape. She also told me that I am a terrible spy and I got defensive, saying that it’s not exactly something I make a habit of. Before she would give me the recording, she questioned me some more, 'What do you know about their meeting, Swan?’

I told her I knew that Cora had taken something from our house and that Ingrid was really frantic when she couldn’t find it, and I said, ‘I don’t know how exactly, but I think the object has something to do with memory. Spencer was looking at these sites- I read some of them under the desk in last period and they were about some magical stone thing, I can send them to you.’

I was expecting Regina to laugh at me for bringing up some random magic stone, but she didn’t seem very surprised, she just looked at me calmly and said ‘Do you know how you come into all of this?’

I didn’t really know what she was talking about, but she continued ‘Send me those pages, Swan, and I’ll send you the recording.’

I haven’t been able to listen to it yet because the sound quality isn’t very good. I’ll have to go home and get my headphones.

* * *

I’ve listened to it a couple of times now and I still don’t think I’ve processed it all. I’m going to transcribe it here so that I can read it back.

You can hear Ingrid come in and Cora offers her a seat. The first thing Ingrid says is:

Ingrid: Where is it?

Cora: Why would I tell you that?

Ingrid: I don’t know, why did you ask me here?

Cora: Because I really am prepared to give it back to you... If you can answer me one thing.

Ingrid: What?

Cora: How is it, that in a land without magic, a land in which even for the tiniest spell, we have to rely on misplaced relics, that your daughter can perform magic?

Ingrid: What are you talking about?

Cora: The other day at the mall. I have eyes and ears everywhere. Your little Emma caused a store window to explode, didn’t she?

Ingrid: The glass was already broken; it was a coincidence.

Cora: No, it was magic. And until you’re willing to admit that and give me the answers I seek; your little memory charm stays with me. Oh, you look upset dear. Why do you suddenly need it so desperately anyway? Unless perhaps you were going to use it on her? Whatever do you want her to forget?

Then there’s a pause before Ingrid slams the cup onto the table and leaves.

So now, it’s not just Ingrid who thinks I have magical powers but Cora too, and not only that but if Cora’s right, Ingrid was going to try to use some kind of magic stone thing to make me forget all of this. She told me that she was going to leave me alone, but maybe she’s just trying to keep me calm until she can put everything right? That’s not the Ingrid I know; she has never gone behind my back like this before, but maybe she really has lost it.

I just texted Regina and said, ‘So your mom’s crazy too?’

She replied, ‘Always has been.’

* * *

Regina and I went for lunch together today. It was kind of cool actually, because I was with her when she blew off her girl gang. We’re no longer meeting up discretely at the harbor, but going for lunch together in public. Progress.

She was more relaxed with me today, and couldn’t help enjoying myself. I feel so different when I’m with her. Even though I’m so confused at everything that’s going on, when I’m with Regina, I feel like I can do anything. She comes out with the sassiest replies when people are being dumb, and I could feel her enjoying herself whenever she managed to make me laugh.

When we had our food, we started to discuss the recording. It felt like such a relief to be able to talk to somebody about Ingrid’s whole magic fantasy thing. When I had explained to Regina everything Ingrid had said, she told me that she had always known that her mother was interested in the occult. Cora has never spoken directly to Regina about magic or anything like that, but there were strange herbs and ingredients in Cora’s room, and when she was 12, Regina discovered her mom’s vault. She wouldn’t tell me everything because she doesn’t quite know whether to trust me yet, but she said that her mother has a secret vault where she keeps all her magical equipment; Cora doesn’t know that Regina knows about it. I found myself becoming more and more relieved that Ingrid wasn’t like Cora. As far as I know, Ingrid doesn’t have a secret vault or weird ingredients or anything like that. But she does believe she had a magical stone that could alter a person’s memory. My memory.

I told Regina that I couldn’t believe Ingrid would want to do something like that to me, that Cora must have assumed wrong, but Regina just shrugged and said, ‘You don’t know what anybody’s capable of. I’m fairly sure my mother would use magic against me, in fact I think she probably has.’

‘Regina, you don’t actually think magic exists? This is real life, not a movie!’

She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. But I do know that my mother is obsessed with power, she uses it to control everybody in her life, including me. If she believes she’s using magic, then maybe she is.’

She wouldn’t say anything more about that and I found myself imagining Regina’s home life. I always thought she was this incredible strong person who always got her way, but now I could see her struggling against her mother’s harsh parenting. It made me angry to think of anybody trying to control her.

Regina suggested that the best way I could gain information was to tell Ingrid that I believed that I had magic, that something else had happened and it had convinced me. Regina could obviously see that I wasn’t too keen on deceiving Ingrid like that because she persuaded me by reminding me that Ingrid wanted to alter my memory. I reluctantly agreed.

Then Regina smiled and reached out her hand to touch my forearm, saying, ‘We have our assignments then; you work on Ingrid, and I’ll get hold of the stone. Then we can see what all the fuss is about.’

‘Wait, how are you going to do that?’ I asked, surprised by this sudden plan.

‘I am going to sneak into my mother’s vault.’

‘I’ll come with you.’ I said, a little too eargerly.

‘No. You have already proven that espionage is not your forte.’ She didn’t say it too harshly, but I was still offended.

‘Ingrid and Cora didn’t see me- I wasn’t hiding from you! You just don’t want me to know where the vault is. You don’t trust me!’

She looked at me in an amused sort of way for a second, and then said ‘Trust is for fools.’

* * *

I know I should be making plans to try to persuade Ingrid that I believe in magic, but I keep getting distracted; I need to find a way to make Regina trust me. I want to help her get the stone, and prove that I’m not completely useless. It annoys me that she thinks I’m not good at that stuff- I could be a good thief! I’ve taken enough things from Leroy’s office and besides, nobody saw me look through Spencer’s office.

I just can’t think how I can convince her. Even though we talked a lot yesterday, I realized that I don’t really know a lot about her. Maybe I should just ask her…

I just texted her and now I already wish that I hadn’t. I just said:

‘What will it take to get you to trust me?’

It sounds really desperate. Shit.

She answered already:

‘Give up, Swan. It’s not personal.’

‘Do you even know my first name?’

‘Can’t think of it.’

* * *

Everybody at school knows about Regina and Killian. All the seniors were talking about it all day, and most of the juniors as well. That asshole was telling all his friends that she was easy, and there was a photo. Typical school drama, everyone’s life is so empty they have to go spreading this shit. The photo is of Killian and her in bed together, they’re wearing night clothes, thank God- she’s asleep, or she would never have let him take it. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that Regina dumped him and now he’s trying to get his revenge.

As the day went on, I was feeling more and more murderous until I had a brilliant idea. Really, I think I may be a certified genius.

The original photo isn’t very clear and I’m pretty good at photo editing. Once I’d worked my magic, I’d produced a brilliant ‘original’ in which the subjects of the photo were a couple of models whose faces I borrowed. Before long, the entire school was laughing at how sad Killian must be to take the time to photoshop a photo to make it look like he had been with Regina.

I think Killian’s reputation may actually stay damaged for a pretty long time. Usually, he’s the type that gets forgiven for things almost immediately. It’s because he’s so handsome, whenever he does anything crappy, people just think he’s being roguish and charming. He’s the type of guy girls think they can change, and maybe he is, but I don’t see that happening anytime this century. Regina's friends, who had been bitching about her all morning, were now fawning over their exonerated leader, as I watched across the canteen Regina looked up and caught my eye, she gave me a look that told me she knew I had been her photoshop savior. When the final bell rang, she sent me a text:

‘Meet me outside yours at 8. Let’s go get that stone.’


	3. Whiskey Heist

I’ve just come home and I have so much to write- I don’t want to miss anything out. I know it’s really late, but I’m wide awake.

At 8 o’clock, I climbed out of my bedroom window (no need for Ingrid to know I was going out) and scanned around for Regina. Because of her constant teasing, I had tried to dress in heist-appropriate clothing. When I met Regina outside, I found that she was still wearing the clothes she had worn to school: a smart dress with a black pencil skirt and a deep burgundy on top. The neckline went all the way up around her neck, but had a keyhole cut-out over her boobs; only Regina could get away with wearing that to school.

She grinned with pleasure seeing me appear in my heist outfit and instantly teased me for it (‘Auditioning for next _Spy Kids_?’) but she wouldn’t let me go and change, striding away down the sidewalk; forcing me to run after her. We walked for about half an hour and hardly spoke at all. I felt wide awake walking alongside her: I felt the breeze against my skin and heard every bird, every squirrel, I felt like they were all watching us.

It turns out Cora’s vault is underneath this family mausoleum. Super creepy.

The mausoleum itself isn’t that big and there was a part of me that thought Regina was playing some kind of trick on me, but when I looked at her, she looked so determined that I knew she wasn’t. We approached it from the side and Regina pulled a length of fabric out of her bag to cover the small camera near the door. I wouldn’t have seen the camera at all if I didn’t know it was there; it was extremely well hidden. I’m willing to bet that this was the only mausoleum in Maine to have a hidden camera at the entrance. In the middle of the mausoleum there was one, large coffin. Regina walked around to its side, put both of her hands against it and pushed with all her weight. With that cut-out in her dress, I saw her lacey black bra as she bent over and I looked away in embarrassment. I’m pretty sure she noticed.

Directly underneath the coffin there were stairs leading down to a door which Regina unlocked with a key from her bag. I swear I don’t know what happened in my life, one minute I’m just Emma, trying get through high school without too much fuss, the next I’m finding secret staircases underneath mausoleums.

Cora’s vault was packed with stuff, but as far as I could tell most of it was worthless junk. There were lots of fancy containers with powders inside, strange plants and bottles of liquids. On one side there was a huge set of drawers each about a hand’s width in size, but as we searched them, we found every single one was empty. Given that the rest of the room was so chaotic, it was weird that Cora hadn’t stored anything here, and I got the feeling she must have been saving it for something.

Regina and I searched through all the drawers and cupboards looking for something that looked like a memory stone. After a couple of minutes, Regina gave a cheer but when I looked over, she wasn’t holding a stone, but a bottle of whiskey. She raised her eyebrow and held it up, but I just tutted and kept looking. Then, in the last drawer I searched I found an ornate little box, and when I opened it up there was a small, smooth stone inside. The stone had a kind of purple hue around it and it felt like it was vibrating when I picked it up. For a moment I think I completely forgot that magic isn’t real as I stared at this little thing. It was the thing in the whole room that seemed remotely magical and I knew instinctively that this was the object Cora had taken from my house.

Regina asked to hold it and as I passed it to her, I could see my own awe reflected in her face as she rolled it over in her hands.

‘Do you still think they’re crazy?’ she asked me.

I nodded but I could feel that there was a part of me that wanted to protest. Regina carefully put the stone back into the little box in my hands and I stored it in my pocket.

‘We never discussed where we would keep it.’ Regina pointed out.

I thought for a second and then I suggested my castle.

‘Your what?’

‘I’ll show you.’

I didn’t even notice she was holding the bottle of whiskey until she put it on the floor upstairs, ready to push the coffin back into place. I shook my head, smiling as we pushed together.

When we got to the park, I went straight to the toolbox and pulled out my diary and put it in my bag (I’m don’t really want Regina reading this) and then I put the stone inside. I suggested to Regina that we get two padlocks for it and keep one key each- that way we could only open it if both of us were there. Of course, Regina teased me again, asking if I wanted to turn the keys into matching pendants, but she seemed happy enough with that plan.

With the stone safely stowed in the foxhole, Regina jumped up onto the castle, opened the whiskey and held it out to me to drink first. I hesitated. I wasn’t scared of getting caught, (nobody comes by here at night) but I was nervous of giving up control around Regina; she still intimidated me. The other day at lunch, I had felt right at home hanging out with her, but something had been different this evening, and I'd felt weirdly self-conscious. Perhaps it was the higher stakes of breaking into an underground vault that made me feel that way, but I had been overanalysing my every move all evening. I remembered the moment I’d seen her bra and my cheeks flushed with embarrassment at the memory, what if I did something really embarrassing? But I was also curious to see what would happen and, I know it sounds stupid but I didn’t want to let her down; when she was perched on the castle looking at me with that wry smile, she was irresistible.

So, I jumped up beside her and took a swig. I had way too big a mouthful and I nearly spat it straight out.

‘That’s vile!’ I said, my throat burning.

‘It’s an acquired taste.’ Regina smirked as she took the bottle from me.

Even though I had hated my first mouthful, as we were chatting, I took a more cautious sip and gradually we passed the bottle back and forth between us. At first we analysed school gossip, laughing about the hypocrisy of it all. At a break in the conversation, Regina looked at me with a misty kind of expression before she started singing gently. The moment I realized what the song was, I groaned with embarrassment; it was the song I had sung in the Middle School talent contest, AKA, the most mortifying moment of my life.

_‘Love shine a light in every corner of my heart’_

Was she just singing this particular song by coincidence?

_‘Let the love light carry, let the love light carry’_

Or did she remember 10 year-old me struggling to sing into the microphone as it screamed with feedback?

_‘Light up the magic in every little part’_

And then some kid in the audience had heckled me to sing louder.

_‘Let our love shine a light in every corner of our heart.’_

I couldn’t stand it any longer, I had to ask ‘Why are you singing that song?’

‘Oh, you remember; in Middle School there was this adorable kid who sang it in the talent contest. She had a beautiful voice, and even though everybody was laughing at her, she sang the whole song and then stuck her tongue out at the idiot who was heckling her.’

I’d completely forgotten that I had done that, and I can’t believe Regina remembers. She grinned at the stunned look on my face and carried on, ‘_And we’re all_\- you better sing with me Swan!- _gonna shine a light together!’_

She fumbled to turn on her phone torch and I laughed and joined in:

‘_All shine a light to light the way_

_Brothers and sisters in every little part_

_Let our love shine a light in every corner of our heart._’

By the last line, we were clinging onto each other and giggling, I had never seen Regina Mills this animated before, and I think the whiskey may have had something to do with it.

Once we recovered from laughing I thanked Regina for letting me tag along, and she reminded me that I had proved myself by solving her Killian problem. She didn’t actually thank me, but I knew what she meant; I think saying nice things goes against all her basic instincts. As we drank more, she admitted how embarrassed she had been at the things he’d said about her, and how easily her so-called friends had believed them. I told her how I had seen them together in the park that night, and she looked suddenly worried. She tried to explain to me why she had been with him; I didn’t need her to explain, but it felt good that she wanted to.

‘I never had any emotional connection with Killian,’ she said, ‘but at first, being around him, it was easy. We are both broken people- his father has let him down so much. I think I thought we deserved each other.’

The world was starting to look a little hazy to me by this point but I remember the next moment very clearly. I held her shoulder firmly, pushing her back to look straight at me and said, ‘You are nothing like him. I wish you could see what I see when I look at you. I know you like to play the part of Queen Regina the Indifferent, but I know you care. You are kind and compassionate. Killian Jones only ever thinks of what pain he can inflict next, I doubt he’s even capable of love.’

At that moment in time, I felt like making her believe my words was the most important task I would ever have; that the whole of my existence depended on Regina believing she deserved good things. I was holding onto her so tight, and our faces were so close that we both stared at each other with the shock of it. I could feel her breathing get tighter as I moved my lips closer to hers.

Then, all of a sudden, she was sobbing.

I held her so tight in my arms I thought I might break her, and she was choking out words ‘No…I…You don’t…’

When she had calmed enough to speak in full sentences, she took a deep breath, not looking me in the eyes and said, ‘Last summer, I met somebody. Mal... she changed my life. She was so different to anybody I’d met before; she was liberated. I’d hangout with her and her friends and we’d do the craziest things… I loved her. My mother did not approve, so Mal and I made plans to run away together. But… she died.’

It was like every word she spoke was compressing my heart until I could hardly breathe; I felt more emotions than I had ever knew existed. I was jealous that Regina’s heart had belonged to somebody else, excited that that person had been female, but above all, I was hurt beyond words to see the person I loved in so much pain. That’s when I realized, Regina was a person I loved. Love. I held her close and sobbed with her.

* * *

I need an aspirin. Ingrid just came in to remind me we’re going to the movie theatre later. I haven’t slept enough and I think I might fall asleep during the movie, but I can’t, I need to stay awake because this will probably be the best chance I get. I haven’t even started to plan how to convince Ingrid that I believe in magic, but today is going to have to be the day, so I’d better start thinking fast. 

* * *

Another crazy day, I don’t know where to start with it all. I just hope Regina’s ok.

Ingrid and I went to the movies like we’d planned, and because we ended up being a bit early, we decided to go and try some of the arcade games. At one point all the machines were busy and I stood back and watched as this kid on the claw machine howl in rage when the claw loosened its grip and dropped his prize. After kicking the machine hard, he slumped away and I thought I’d take my chances. I knew that those machines normally work on pay-out percentage, so if it hadn’t worked for him, it might be ready to give me a win. It was still unlikely though- I don’t know how often those things actually work, and I’ve never actually seen anyone win.

On my first attempt I lined up the horizontal well but then I pressed too early for the vertical. When the machine reset, I took a deep breath and put in a second dollar. Ingrid came over to join me with the corn dogs she’d just bought and I guided the claw perfectly above the soft toy. The claw fitted around it exactly, and as it lifted up, the claw held fast. I saw my opportunity. While Ingrid celebrated, I stayed perfectly still and quiet.

‘I did it.’

‘Yes, well done!’

‘No, I mean I made it happen.’

Ingrid looked confused and I wasn’t quite sure how to phrase it so that she’d believe me.

‘It was like I was the claw; I was looking down from it from above, and then I willed it to hold on tight.’

Ingrid had latched on to what I was trying to say, but given my previous reactions I could tell she was being more cautious. She waited for me to spell it out.

‘I think… what you said before… about magic… I think you’re right.’

‘Emma, are you sure? You’re ready?’

I nodded, already starting to feel sick to my stomach at this horrible deceit. She smiled such a huge smile and took my arm, leading me outside where we could talk in private.

‘Emma, there are a lot of things I need to tell you. Things that you weren’t ready to hear before, but this moment was prophesied before you were even born.’

I could already feel my pulse rising in my neck, but I gave a little jerking nod to let her continue.

‘Years ago, when I was a child, I lived in a different world, in a place called Arendelle. I had two sisters, and we were princesses. One day, I discovered, much like you have, that I had magical powers. My sisters promised to love me no matter what, but in the end, they could never truly love me, because they were not like me. They saw me as a monster. Many years later, I sought a sorcerer to find me two true sisters, with powers, who could love me as my blood sisters never could. I learned of a prophecy: that I would find my sisters and that they would lead me to my happy ending. The sorcerer’s apprentice provided me with passage to this world, to find you, and I have waited here for many years.’

She was talking, and I knew this was what I had wanted, for Ingrid to tell me everything, all of it. But I could feel an anger boiling up inside of me. How could I go along with this? It made no sense! I stopped hearing what she was saying, like there was something screaming in my mind, and before I knew it, I was screaming. I was shouting at her with every fibre of my being.

And then I ran. I ran to the park; to my castle. I jumped up into its middle and sat there, hugging my legs.

I was so lost. The person who had been like my big sister, had cared for me, made me feel so safe, was suddenly a stranger to me. My whole life was a lie; Ingrid hadn’t asked me to live with her because she liked me, because she thought we should be a family, she did it because she built this whole delusion about magic and princesses. I was just the idiot who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got sucked into believing that somebody could actually love me for me. So many horrible thoughts came to me as I sat there, so that I didn’t know what was true anymore, and I got completely lost in the fog of confusion.

And then my phone rang. Regina was calling me, and as soon as she heard my shaky ‘Hello,’ she knew instinctively that I needed her.

‘Where are you, Swan?’

Soon enough, she came to me and took my hand, guiding me back to the shore.

Last night, it had been Regina crying, me comforting, and today our roles were reversed. Our openness scares me; I never cry, I don’t tell people what’s on my mind, and I avoid physical contact at all costs. I’ve known this girl for less than a week and I’ve already broken all of my usual rules.

She calmed me down so much, just being there with her, in her arms, and she listened as I explained what had happened. She was sympathetic, but she told me it was better that I knew the whole story now; better that I knew who Ingrid really was. I couldn’t help but feel that she was letting her own relationship with her mother affect the way she talked about mine. She didn’t really understand that I love Ingrid, I need her.

When I was calm, she told me why she had called. Cora had discovered that the stone was missing. She had come home in a rage and then set off to meet Ingrid. I was worried for Ingrid, despite how angry I was with her, and I told Regina I had to go and make sure she was ok. Regina tried to stop me from going, telling me I couldn’t help, but I insisted. She looked hurt, but she let me go, saying that she couldn’t come because Cora might work out what had happened if she saw us together.

‘It’ll be ok.’ She said. ‘Just let it blow over, she’ll calm down. Whatever you do, don’t let her know that you know anything about it.’

I didn’t really think much of these warnings at the time, but now I guess I realize that Regina was trying to warn me what her mother is really like- and I didn’t listen.

I ran home, and I saw Cora’s car outside. I snuck around the back and walked silently down the hall. I could hear the two of them talking, voices not raised, but full of poison. Cora was saying, ‘I deserve the stone, I have studied my whole life for this, you will not take it away from me.’

‘You think you have waited a long time?’ Ingrid replied coolly. ‘You don’t know the first thing about patience, Cora. But magic is a gift, I was born with it; no amount of studying will give you what you want. You cannot use the stone, so why take it?’

‘I can use it. I can harness its power for myself!’

‘Ha. You really know nothing, do you?’ Unlike their meeting at the Mills’ house, this time Ingrid sounded calm and confident, and some of the panic I had felt on my way over subsided, until I screwed everything up. I thought I was safely out of sight of the them both, but Cora’s next breath proved me wrong. ‘If you truly have magic, Ingrid, then why not give us both a demonstration? That’s right, Emma, I can see you. Come, join us!’

The next moment happened in slow motion; as I stepped out of the doorway, I saw Ingrid turn to look at me, and Cora grabbed a book from the table and brought it up towards Ingrid’s head. I shouted a warning and Ingrid moved to the side, the book just skimming her ear as she rounded on Cora, but Cora was crazy, before Ingrid could process what was happening, Cora had let the book fly out of her hands and had clasped her hand around Ingrid’s throat.

Instinctively, I moved forwards to pull her off, but Cora tightened her grip in warning: ‘One more step.’ Seeing that I had stopped a little way off, Cora returned her gaze to Ingrid and said ‘This is your last chance; where is the stone?’

Even if she wanted to, Ingrid couldn’t have told Cora where it was, and I realized this as I stood there in the middle of the living room, my right arm still stretched out towards Ingrid with the intention of saving her. I had to save her, because no matter how crazy she might be, it couldn’t compare to the maniac now threatening to kill her.

‘I took it.’

Cora swung around to look at me, still clutching Ingrid’s neck like a praying mantis, and she saw that I was serious. I could see the cogs turning in her brain as she tried to work out how I could have found her vault. ‘How? How could you even…?’ Then it dawned on her. ‘Regina.’

As Cora realized that she had been burgled by her own daughter, her grip on Ingrid’s throat faltered, and Ingrid grabbed a vase off the mantelpiece and smashed it against Cora’s head. She fell to the ground, out cold.

Ingrid and I were left standing there in shocked silence, staring at Cora’s unconscious form. One of us would have to say something, to reconcile, but my mind was still too confused to form full sentences, but Ingrid crossed the room and pulled me into a hug.

‘Thank you.’

‘For what? I took the stone, I’m the reason she came here.’

‘None of this is your fault, Emma. Thank you for saving me just now. I was so scared, without my powers… look, I don’t need the stone, nothing is more important than keeping you safe, I see that now. I’ve been doing everything wrong; you should have been my main focus; can you forgive me?’

I nodded, trying to form a sentence in my head to tell Ingrid how sorry I was for going behind her back, but Cora stirred at our feet, and we both instinctively jumped away.

Regina’s mother stood up slowly, using the furniture for support. She no longer looked like a PTA mom, but some wild animal, Ingrid stepped a little in front of me and said ‘Get out of our house. Give up on the stone, give up on magic, and Cora, I cannot stress this enough, stay away from my family.’

Cora was already at the front door, and she turned back to give the last word before she left. ‘Maybe Emma should stay away from my family.’

‘Regina’ I said, wide-eyed with worry. I had been so concerned for mine and Ingrid’s current safety that I hadn’t realized how much trouble I had caused for Regina. Frantically, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and started texting.

‘R, you need to get out of the house. Cora’s coming: she knows. I’m so sorry! She went crazy, I thought she was going to kill Ingrid! I can meet you at the castle? Or wherever?’

I sent the text and stared at the screen, waiting for her to reply, willing her to understand. After the longest few seconds of my life, I got Regina’s reply.

‘I can handle my mother.’

I think she’s mad at me, I’m just so worried, now that I know what her mother is really like, I can’t believe she has to live with somebody like that. I feel like I should go and support her, but she clearly doesn’t want me there. I just need to know if she’s ok.


	4. Truth Hurts

Emma Swan had fallen asleep fairly quickly, in the end. After waiting, terrified, to hear from Regina, she had felt the exhaustion mingle with her relief when Regina had knocked on the door.

Regina’s lip was cut, but nothing was said about it as she had been invited in and given a hot cocoa and a blanket.

Long after Ingrid and Emma had gone upstairs, Regina still sat on the sofa like a statue, holding the empty cup and staring at the wall. Her mother was a monster, this she had always known, but in her own messed up way, she loved Regina. Every time Cora hurt her, Regina reminded herself that it was because she loved her so much; she was overprotective, she cared too much. Even Cora’s most evil acts could be explained away as love, but that didn’t make them any less destructive. Regina knew she should have done something long ago; walked out, told somebody, but it was love that held her back. She loved her mother, and she wanted to understand, but now the past was repeating itself. Regina knew that she could not survive if history were to repeat itself; it had taken everything she had to put herself back together before, she could not do it again. If Cora were to hurt Emma…

The idiot blonde who had been Regina’s first crush all the way back in Middle School, Emma had sold her out, and worse than that, she didn’t seem to realize how much it had hurt. How huge a betrayal it had been for Emma to choose lying, manipulative Ingrid over her.

She let it all boil over her, until she knew exactly what she wanted to say, how she could make Emma feel her pain, and she stood up, and made her way upstairs. Regina stood in the doorway of the sleeping girl’s room and watched her. Emma was snoring softly, her smooth, muscular arm rising and falling in rhythm with the sound.

‘Emma.’ Regina breathed, trying to hold on to her anger.

Emma did not stir.

Regina carefully moved to walk around the bed, to wake her up, but she tripped on something unseen in the dark. Cursing, she knelt down to massage her foot and saw what had tripped her up. Emma’s backpack lay at the end of her bed, and inside that was the small leather-bound book which Emma had stuffed in there earlier. Regina remembered this detail as she crouched there in the dark, and without letting herself think too hard, she reached into the bag and retrieved the notebook.

As she turned the final pages of Emma Swan’s diary, a single tear sparkled in the light of the dawn on Regina’s face. The dawn light caused Emma herself to stir. When she saw Regina sat on her floor, Emma jumped up, startled, saying ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

Regina looked up at her calmly, her eyes taking in the panic on Emma’s face. ‘I didn’t have you down for the "Dear Diary" type, Swan.’

‘I’m … I’m not. It just … helped.’ Replied Emma, her eyebrows pressing together. She would have stood up, and taken the diary back, but she was all too aware that she was wearing only a vest top and pants, and she felt scared and vulnerable.

Regina smirked as Emma pulled the sheet closer to her, and flicked the pages of the diary back. ‘You know, it’s quite an interesting read. Hmm, let’s see. Here. “That’s when I realized, Regina was a person I loved. Love.”’

‘That’s private! I can’t believe you…’

‘Private? When were you going to tell me you’re in love with me? Or is that information for your little princess journal only? I’m sure you’ve got a scrapbook made up somewhere for your stupid school girl crushes, or maybe you’ve been focusing on your wedding Pinterest board? Ooh, maybe we could go dress shopping for our weekiversary!’ And then Regina gave a small chuckle, stood up, and looked back at Emma on her way out. ‘You don’t know what love is.’

* * *

_'Relax Little Gecko, you can do this.’_

_Mal placed her hand over Regina’s to stop her rhythmical tapping against the steering wheel. They were in Ella’s car, a lavish thing built to look like a vintage car from the 30s, and Regina was trying not to think about what would happen if she so much as scratched it; Ella would probably set the dogs on her. She glanced into the rear-view mirror to see that Ursula was lying with her head in Ella’s lap, browsing reddit. They clearly weren’t worried; they’d done this before._

_In the distance, a train whistle sounded, and Regina’s breath caught in her chest. ‘Right foot gas, left foot brake.’ She whispered to herself._

_‘Not yet. I’ll tell you when.’ Said Mal, still holding Regina’s hand to reassure her._

_‘Might want to strap in, darling.’ Drawled Ella, shaking Ursula’s shoulder._

_Four pairs of eyes peered into the distance to see the glowing lights heading towards them. If Cora Mills had known that this was how Regina was ‘learning to drive’, she would certainly not have approved, then again, didn’t she always say that fear was the best motivator?_

_Closer and closer came the train, like a powerful python stalking its prey, Mal lifted her hand away gently, allowing Regina to grip the shift lever in anticipation. Her head was pounding as if her brain was trying to do the job of all her vital organs by itself because the rest of her body was completely numb, useless. There was too much information trying to feed its way into her skull, and none of it made any sense, her vision blurred into a cacophony of the lights, the rain, and the soft interior of Ella’s car; the calm image of Mal in the passenger seat. With a deep breath in, Regina closed her eyes, shutting all of it out. The symphony of senses was quietened, and the silence held fast until she heard Mal’s voice cut through, clear and confident._

_‘Now.’_

_The car jolted forward, Regina’s eyes flew open in panic to see that she was veering dangerously close to a bollard, and she slammed on the brakes. The huge locomotive slinked away, unsated._

_‘Careful, darling!’ Cried Cruella, ‘You nearly dented my baby!’_

_‘Oh, don’t worry, Ella, Ursula’s fine.’ Maleficent shot back, smirking._

_As Regina laughed, the tension she had felt was replaced with pure adrenaline, and she pulled Mal towards her for a kiss._

* * *

_Spending time with Mal and the girls had made Regina feel a freedom she couldn’t even have dreamed of before. Life at home was always so controlled, so formal. Her mother had strict ideas about what Regina should do, and her father was always away on business. With Mal, every day was dangerous and exciting, she felt like she had unlocked the secret to life, and she would laugh at the poor unfortunate souls who were yet to discover it. The only downside was that her mother was getting more and more controlling. At first, Regina had succeeded in hiding her new relationship from her mother with stealth, lies and alibis, but as the euphoria of new love had gripped Regina, Cora could hardly have ignored the fact that her daughter was practically glowing._

_As soon as she found out, Cora insisted that Mal come to dinner, and after grilling the girl about her life, her prospects, her interests, Regina had clung onto the deluded hope that her mother may actually accept this relationship, that they had gone through the hardest part._

_Then came the nightmare. Just four days after Mal had been for dinner, Cora had invited her back, but this time she presented the couple with a collection of photographs, taken by a private investigator. The evidence was pretty damning; there were photos of them drinking together, all underage, that time they’d convinced her to try pot, the night they’d set fire to that creepy asshole’s car. Regina felt a little bad about that last one, even if he had deserved it, but Mal always enjoyed living up to her nickname of ‘The Dragon’, and she had joked that Regina was her apprentice dragon, hence her nickname ‘Little Gecko.’ How had they not realized they were being watched?_

_Cora put her foot down, and told Regina that she was forbidden from ever seeing Mal again, but Mal wasn’t having any of it. She seemed to double in size as she squared up to Cora, telling her that she could not control her daughter like that, that Regina was in charge of her own life. Unused to being challenged in her own home, Cora reached towards Regina to pull her away from Mal, but ‘The Dragon’ snarled and pushed Cora away. Cora was so shocked to find a teenager physically resisting her, she slapped Mal crispy on the cheek, and Mal flew into a rage. She leapt forwards to attack Cora, pushing her back against the wall, Regina screaming at them both to stop. She was not prepared for this, her mother and Mal attacking each other with such hatred; she wanted to pull Mal away, make her stop, but she also didn’t want to let her mother win. Mal was face-to-face with Cora, one hand around her neck, the other pinning an arm against the wall._

_‘You don’t get to decide what she does; we are going to keep seeing each other, and you won’t stop us! Say it- say you won’t stop us!’_

_But Cora wasn’t listening to Mal’s threats or pleas; her free hand was quietly opening the top draw of the cabinet next to her and wrapping itself around the handgun inside. Regina realized too late, her warning was lost in the deafening crack of the gunshot, and Mal’s body fell backwards._

_To Regina, it felt like the entire world was slowing to a halt as she ran forwards to stop Mal’s head hitting the ground. Their eyes found each other and both knew that it was already too late. Cora was shocked at first; she hadn’t intended the evening to happen like this, but she recovered her composure, knowing that she would have to act quickly to save her family. She took Regina’s arm and pulled her away from Mal’s body; the devastated teenager had no power to resist as she was led up to her room and locked inside._

_Two hours later, Cora opened the bedroom door gently. Scattered around the room was the debris of items thrown across the room or smashed in grief-stricken rage, but Regina now lay face-up on her bed, still as a statue. Cora perched herself on the edge of the bed and took one of Regina’s hands in her own._

_‘I have cleared everything up.’ She said, soothingly. ‘I know that tonight’s regrettable events will cause you some pain now, but I promise you that this is what is best for you, Regina. If you had run away with that miscreant, the excitement would have worn off and you’d be left stranded God-knows where with no life prospects. You have money, status, and you are absolutely beautiful; I cannot allow you to throw away all of the gifts I have given you. In time, you will understand, but for now you are not to tell anybody what has happened here tonight, I assure you they will not believe you; I’ve dealt with everything, and that useful PI I hired found enough evidence to get those two other friends of yours sent to juvie for a short while, so they’ll just think that your girlfriend ratted them out and skipped town. Listen to me closely, Regina, I love you more than anything in the whole world, and that is why I am prepared to do whatever it takes to give you your best chance in life; so if you breathe a word of this to anybody, I will be forced to seek treatment for your delusions, do you understand?’_

* * *

Now, Regina sat in the room in which she had once been made a prisoner, dismantled on the floor next to her bed. The house was empty; perhaps Cora had gone somewhere to check for concussion, Regina couldn’t have cared less. Tears were drying on her cheek, and a single drop of blood trickled from her clasped hand, where a small dragon pendant was digging into her skin. A tatty, innocent-looking book lay on the floor in no-man’s land between the door and the broken teen.

Emma Swan, the stand-offish blonde who always acted without thinking, the girl who had saved her skin and held her tight, just had to ruin it all by writing all her thoughts down in that thing. Why did she have to make it real, force the subject so early on? Regina’s hands could still feel the movement of Mal’s last breaths and Emma had come out with a confession like that? It wasn’t fair, not any of it. Regina was still so young, after all, and everybody else she knew her age in school didn’t have to think about any of these things; they dated who they wanted, and their lives carried on. Regina had had to grow up a long time ago, she always had to be the strong one, and now was no different. To open herself up to love, when nothing had changed, was pure idiocy. She had to honor Mal’s memory and keep Emma safe, and staying away from Emma was the only way.

Her purse buzzed gently, and when Regina located her phone, there was the text, ‘I want this over. Meet me at the harbor, bring your key.’

Walking to the harbor, Regina realized how weak she felt; she hadn’t eaten or slept for many hours, and there had been so much happening. The closer she got to the ocean, the more she felt that she no longer had the energy to hold all the atoms of her body together and that a particularly strong gust of wind may cause her to disintegrate. But Regina had spent her entire life practising to exude confidence and strength at the very moments she felt the weakest, and as she saw the girl in the red leather jacket standing by the sea, her long blonde curls buffeting her face, Regina lifted her chin and strode forwards with purpose.

Both girls looked at each other fiercely, not daring to allow their faces to betray the pain that they were each feeling. Regina’s way of hiding her true emotions consisted of a relaxed smile on her mouth and a glimmer in her eyes which dared the world to double-cross her. Emma, on the other hand, furrowed her brows, her face stern as she said, ‘We’ll throw it in the ocean. Hopefully the tides will take it with them, and then you and I will have no more business together. You can go back to your cheerleader friends.’

‘I don’t want to do that.’ Said Regina, a little dejected.

‘What _do_ you want, Regina?’ Returned Emma, her voice raised. ‘You want to spend time with me, you want to look after me, you want me to save you from your mother, but you don’t want to admit what that means!’

‘I just thought you were more interesting to spend time with than the cheerleaders, it doesn’t mean any more than that.’

‘DON’T LIE TO ME- I KNOW YOU FEEL IT TOO!’ screamed Emma, striding towards Regina; the last time they had been this close they had very nearly kissed.

‘No Swan, I don’t.’ Regina took a step away. ‘You need to get a grip of yourself; love is weakness.’

‘No. No. You’re just too scared to open yourself up to it. What, because of Mal? I know she died, but at some point, you have to move on, Regina!’

‘You have no idea!’ She threw her key at Emma. ‘There. Do whatever you want with it.’

Emma watched Regina stride away until she could no longer see her, then she bent down to retrieve her key. She had already removed her own padlock from the toolbox, and now she used Regina’s key to remove the second. Holding the cold padlocks, one in each hand, Emma walked across to the rail and fitted one around the frame; in another life, this padlock could have been a lovelock, chosen to be used as a symbol of a couple’s love. She took the padlock back, wove it through the ring of the other, and locked them both. Then she drew her arm back and tossed the intertwined locks as far into the ocean as she could manage. They landed with a dull splash and sunk quickly through the salty water, nestling down together in the sandy ocean floor. Emma turned back to the toolbox and opened it to reveal the small, purple stone within. The stone was a reminder of the break in her relationships with both Ingrid and Regina; she should cast it away alongside those padlocks, but this object clearly held some great importance to both Cora and Ingrid, and what if there was even the slightest chance that it could do what they thought it could? If the stone really was capable of taking away somebody’s memories, if it could take away a person’s pain- how could she let it rot at the bottom of the ocean? Without realising she’d made a decision, Emma pocketed the memory stone and headed back home.


	5. Olive Branch

‘Miss Swan, why don’t you tell me what this angle should be?’

Math class had become the space in which Emma did a lot of her thinking. The teacher, she couldn’t even remember his name, had one of those voices which could induce sleep in the most energetic of people. 10 minutes of that voice, and Emma’s thoughts would drift away from the classroom, usually finding their way to Regina. The pair hadn’t spoken since the harbor, although there had been several awkward encounters in the corridor. Emma could not believe that she could miss anybody this much, especially somebody who she had only known for a couple of weeks, but they had connected in that time; more than ever Emma had with anybody else. Those few hours they had spent together had felt so intimate; they had been vulnerable with one another and at some point, each had cried in the other’s arms.

The rest of the school continued oblivious to the turmoil inside Emma’s mind, the only topic on anybody’s lips was the upcoming prom. The theme for this year was ‘Happily Ever After’, and it had come to that time of the year when girls would line the corridors, preening themselves, hoping to catch a date in their webs. At the start of the year, Emma had thought that she would have liked to go to the prom, and even though she wasn’t the most sociable person ever, she had expected that somebody would ask her. Now, as she wove her way between classes, every time a boy so much as caught her eye she would dart through the gaps in the crowd to escape. The idea of attending the prom, watching Regina showing off on the arm of some sleaze bag, was Emma’s idea of hell.

* * *

If school wasn’t depressing enough, Ingrid was still moping around the house trying to pretend she no longer cared about the prophecy, and despite her heart-felt apology, Emma still hadn’t completely forgiven her for everything she had put her through. After a few days of this, however, Emma couldn’t stand it anymore and decided that she should take the opportunity to rectify at least one of the relationships in her life. When Ingrid hung up the phone in frustration after arguing with the man from the gas company, Emma reminded her that they had never seen that movie they went to before. Ingrid clearly recognised this as an olive branch because her face lit up as she said ‘Are you sure?’. Emma’s decision to make peace with Ingrid had been spontaneous one, and seeing Ingrid looking so relieved, she felt it important to make it clear that this did not yet mean full forgiveness.

‘Yeah, well you know, it’s the new Marvel film and I already know, like, 10 spoilers, so I need to see it soon before somebody tells me the entire plot.’

Ingrid nodded; that was good enough for her. So, the pair headed to the movie theatre, bought a bucket of popcorn and settled in for the movie. It had been in the theatres a long time by that point, so there weren’t too many other people sitting near them, and Emma and Ingrid soon forgot their disagreements as they laughed out loud, answered back to the characters and sang along to the music.

After the movie, they climbed back into the car, and reality settled back on them. Nothing had changed, whilst Ingrid had promised not to act on her beliefs, she still did believe them, and Emma did not. The young unbeliever looked over at the woman who had saved her from a life of solitary battle and sighed. ‘I know you’re still bummed about the whole prophecy thing; I mean I don’t get it, and I’m still kinda angry, but I do understand that it was important to you.’

‘It is,’ Ingrid nodded, ‘Emma, I’ve been on this path for so many, long years, but lately I have started to wonder if I did something wrong. I don’t think this is the world I was promised; not only is it a land without magic, but I also worry that it is one in which magic cannot exist. Perhaps the glass smashing really was just a coincidence. I am surprised that the sorcerer would trick me like this, but this world just cannot be right. That stone you found, well I actually have one other,’ Ingrid saw the look of alarm on Emma’s face and quickly went on, ‘but it’s different, don’t worry. The stone you found was blank, so it’s magic energy is minimal, but the other I keep with me at all times because it contains the Elsa’s memories. She was supposed to be our third sister, but even if I see her again someday, I am worried that the memories I need to give her will be gone. I didn’t notice at first when I arrived, but over time in this land, the stone has gradually been losing its power. I can feel her fading away from me, but all the while I am stuck in a land without magic, with no way of solving my problems.’

Every time Ingrid spoke about magic or the prophecy it made Emma tense and angry, but she took a deep breath. She had learnt by now that there was nothing she could say or do that would stop Ingrid from believing in all of this, but she had never tried to help.

‘If this isn’t the world you are supposed to be in,’ Emma began tentatively, ‘maybe you could ask the person who sent you here what’s going on?’

‘I have no way of doing that. I never actually spoke with the sorcerer himself, and his apprentice is in the land I came from. I have no way of contacting them.’

Ingrid sighed and pulled Emma in for a hug, saying ‘Thank you.’

* * *

With Ingrid and Emma’s relationship on the mend, Emma’s life had taken its first step back towards being like it used to be. In the old days, Ingrid had been the one person Emma trusted, after a childhood full of disappointment and loneliness, Emma had developed a stand-offish front so that most people avoided trying to befriend her. She had liked that way: if you didn’t let anyone in, they couldn’t let you down, but Ingrid had taken the time to prove herself as first an ally, and then family. For some time, that had been enough, to have one person to share her problems with, and continue shutting out the rest of the world. Sure, there were people at school she hung around with, when she needed a lab partner, or just wanted to let off some steam, but they were a group of damaged people, who all understood that they were just using each other’s company when needed; they weren’t friends. Regina had been the first person apart from Ingrid that Emma had opened up to in a while, and it had felt good.

Initially, when Regina had turned on her, she had been angry, but the more she thought about it, the more confusion she felt, because Regina’s reaction just didn’t make sense; in the time they had spent together, Regina had clearly felt something, Emma was sure of this. The looks Regina had given her still gave her shivers when she remembered them, the excited, hungry grin when they had entered Cora’s vault, the carefree smile when they had drunk together, and the soft, vulnerable tears she had shed later that night. And what about when Emma was crying and Regina heard her sobs down the phone? Her worried voice was so heavy with love, Emma had known that for certain.

It must have something to do with Mal, Emma thought; Regina hadn’t denied that when they were arguing at the harbor. But what could possibly have happened that stopped Regina from admitting her feelings? Emma herself had been let down and abandoned throughout her life, but being with Regina she could feel some of those wounds closing, why was it that Emma couldn’t do that for Regina?

Crazed by these thoughts, Emma moved on from the first stage of her misery: trying to avoid Regina at school, and began the next phase: obsession. She was plagued by the question, ‘is she happy?’ and would watch her from a distance at break or lunch. If Emma thought her stalking was going unnoticed, she was wrong, because although most of the school paid no attention to her, Regina was aware of her shadow, and she found it harder and harder to pretend to be okay knowing that Emma was watching. Emma was like a child, Regina thought, she clearly didn’t understand the pain of love and heartbreak; she expected Regina to love her for free, with no caveats or baggage, she had never even once asked how Mal had died. The blonde’s emotional insensitivity, in Regina’s opinion, deserved some recompense, and whenever she felt Emma’s eyes watching her, Regina did her best to look happy and unaffected by the events of the past few days. It became like a game; at first, it was just by laughing loudly at other people’s jokes, trying to look as though her heart wasn’t aching like never before, and soon it had escalated to a level Regina would never normally have allowed; she was sitting cross legged on the grass whilst her girl gang braided her hair. Somehow, she didn’t mind acting like a first grader as long as she knew she was punishing Emma.

The main play in her game would be to decide who to take to prom. Most of the school had already made their arrangements for the dance, but nobody had yet asked Regina. Of course, all the boys wanted to go with her, and quite a few of the girls too, but nobody would dare to presume to ask Regina to the prom. She would invite whoever she wanted, and if they already had a date, well, that date would have to find a new partner.

The question was, who would annoy Emma the most? Regina was sure that taking a girl would really get under Emma’s skin, but as far as she knew, nobody in school knew that she liked girls, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready to come out to the entire school yet. It wasn’t that she was ashamed of liking girls, but Regina could read school politics like a master and she knew that the unquestioning loyalty of her followers was conditional; she had to fulfil a certain amount of popularity requirements to remain queen, and coming out could rock the boat quite a bit. Then again, it wouldn’t be long until she graduated, and then who really cares what those losers think? It needs to be the right girl, Regina decided.

There was only one other girl in the school who was out as bi, and was an acceptable choice for Prom; Ruby was part of the alternative popular crowd, and was really quite beautiful. Ruby would certainly annoy Emma, but as for her reputation… well Regina’s girl gang may not like it. It was that typical biphobic response; everybody said that Ruby was easy, and a large percentage of school gossip was spent slut-shaming her clothing choices. Ruby never appeared to be too bothered by this, but Regina still felt angry thinking about it, and just as she was deciding that maybe this was exactly the reason she should choose Ruby, one of her followers clutched her arm and pointed across the school courtyard towards Emma Swan.

‘That blonde girl keeps following you around, Regina, she’s been staring right at you for ages.’

‘Omg, you don’t think she’s like, got a crush on you or something?’ Giggled a second girl.

‘Haha, gross! Creepy stalker!’ The first girl yelled. ‘You know I always wondered why that girl never talks to anyone; like, she’s fairly pretty, but she just ignores boys and mopes around like a loser, but it actually makes sense now!’

‘What are you talking about?’ Regina growled, scowling at the speaker. ‘She’s a loser… because she’s gay?’

‘No, I just mean that I get it now, why she’s so weird!’ The girl replied, completely oblivious of Regina’s boiling rage.

‘Because she’s gay?’ Regina repeated, incredulously.

‘Yeah!’ The girl seemed relieved that Regina had understood.

‘It’s a pity you don’t have that excuse,’ the outraged brunette spat, standing up, ‘I guess all the boys just avoid you because you’re a bitch.’

* * *

Emma had seen the pointing and the laughing, and the words ‘Creepy stalker!’ played on repeat in her head. She was embarrassed, not for what those air-heads thought about her, but because she knew she had been acting obsessively. Reflecting now, she realized that she had been staring at Regina a bit too often for normal social boundaries and she shook herself for being such an idiot. She had never acted like this in her whole life; she had come to expect abandonment usually took it in her stride, but letting Regina go seemed so much harder. She got up to leave, but as she did so, she saw Regina snatch her food away and leave her group. She looked angry, and Emma realized with a grin that she had stood up for her.

Emma followed her, deciding that phase three was going to be reconciliation. Regina found her way to an empty classroom, she could feel Emma following, but made no move to stop her, she walked to the far corner and sat lightly on a table. Emma followed tentatively and stopped to stand just behind the seated girl.

‘Hey.’

‘What do you want, Swan?’

‘I, uh, I want to say I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have expected you to be where I was, I just, I wish I’d never written that fucking diary.’

Regina’s scowl softened a little. ‘Yeah, so do I.’

‘And I’m sorry that I said you should get over Mal, I can’t imagine what her dying must have been like for you.’

‘No, you can’t,’ Regina replied, ‘but that’s partly because I didn’t take the time to tell you. I’m not just heartbroken over Mal, although that should have been a good enough reason to give me some space… but it’s not your fault; there’s more to it. Mal didn’t just die, she was murdered, by my mother.’

That was the first time Regina had ever spoken those words aloud, and the silence that followed them seemed deafening. Emma searched frantically for the right words to make it better before realising that she could never find them, so she said nothing.

‘We were going to run away together,’ Regina continued, ‘but my mother couldn’t bear to let me go. She couldn’t let me be happy, because it wasn’t what she wanted for me. There was a fight, I just froze up, I didn’t know what to do, and before I really knew what was happening, my mother had reached for a gun, and Mal was dying, right there in our drawing room. Mother pulled some strings, and soon Ella and Ursula were in juvie, and my mother was telling me that if I ever tried to tell anybody the truth, she’d have me committed.’

‘Regina, that’s… horrible.’ Emma tentatively reached out to the arm of the girl she was afraid might shatter, but her skin was warm to the touch, and she leaned back into the blonde’s embrace as it was offered. There was a deep bruise on Regina’s upper arm, which had been hidden by her scarf, but which now came uncovered by Emma’s caresses. Both girls looked at the mark, and an unspoken understanding flowed between them; there was nothing Emma could do. But another thought crossed Emma’s mind:

‘Are you worried she’ll hurt me?’

Regina’s body gave a small contortion as she let out a sound half way between a snort and a sob; ‘I can’t go through that again.’

Finally, Emma understood; Regina had felt guilty about betraying Mal, yes, but she also felt she had to protect Emma, which was all very well, except: ‘How am I supposed to stop worrying about you?’

The two girls remained where they were for some time, saying nothing, but enjoying being vulnerable with each other. Out in the world, they were both strong and unfaltering, but in each other’s arms, they were free to be honest. 

* * *

The next day, Emma and Regina automatically met before school; neither had arranged to do so, but when Regina walked through the school gates, she scanned the crowd to find Emma waving her over. At lunch, they grabbed some food to go, and took it to the castle for some privacy. Emma automatically jumped up to sit on the edge, but Regina stayed on the ground and moved directly in front of Emma. Smiling up at the girl in the leather jacket, Regina moved her hands slowly up Emma’s legs, letting them rest on the small of her back. They had come so close to kissing before, with the help of some whiskey, but on that occasion, Regina had been too distracted by her grief. This time, Regina was ready, she wanted it more than anything, and she pulled Emma’s body closer to hers. Emma placed a hand under Regina’s chin and guided it up towards her own. Just before their lips met, a gust of wind caused a ringlet of Emma’s hair to intercept their kiss and Regina laughed as she pulled the blonde hair out of her mouth. Then, with a determined look, Regina lifted both of her hands to Emma’s head, clamping her hair to the sides and pulled her forwards; finally, their lips met. Emma had never had a real, romantic kiss before, and she couldn’t imagine ever kissing anybody other than Regina; they fitted together perfectly. Regina’s skin felt smooth, her lips soft, and as Emma’s lips grazed the scar on Regina’s upper lip, she tingled with pleasure. Once they had had their fill of each other, Regina jumped up to sit next to Emma and unpacked her lunch, but she couldn’t bring herself to eat anything whilst something was still weighing on her mind.

‘Spencer’s in my mother’s pocket, and he has his little spies all over school.’ She said to Emma. ‘My mother already suspects there’s something going on between us, so we can’t do anything that will prove her right. If she finds out, I don’t know what she’ll do, but I swear nothing I do these days is good enough for her; I could probably bring home Prince Charming and she wouldn’t approve.’

‘It’s ok, I don’t mind being a secret; it’s kind of fun.’ Emma replied, nuzzling Regina’s arm.

‘I don’t want you to be a secret.’ Said Regina, taking Emma’s hands in hers. ‘I want to tell everybody, and I want to show you off at prom and…’

‘We could have our own prom, if you want?’ Emma cut in, smiling an adorably earnest smile.

‘How would we do that?’

‘Leave it to me.’

* * *

The next day was a Saturday, and Emma and Ingrid spent the day together, shopping. After half an hour of Emma trailing behind her, head in her phone, Ingrid asked ‘Who are you texting this whole time?’ Emma thought for a second before deciding to tell Ingrid the truth.

‘Regina, you know, Cora’s daughter? She and I are… texting.’ Emma had been about to say dating, but reminded herself that they had only kissed for the first time exactly one day ago, and she didn’t want to upset Regina by going anywhere near the ‘I love you’ territory again. Ingrid, however, had caught the hesitation and understood.

‘How long have you been… _texting_?’ she asked, slyly.

‘Oh, um, not long.’ Emma paused, wanting to tell Ingrid more, but trying to find the right words to explain. ‘I really like her, she’s not like her mother- not really.’

Ingrid was not entirely surprised by this information; she had seen Emma’s worry for Regina that night when Cora had attacked Ingrid, and then later the relief when she turned up mostly unhurt, so she just smiled and told Emma that Regina was welcome to come around anytime. After lunch, they were in a thrift store and Emma found two matching bracelets near the till that had a flower design across them. They were subtle, and Emma took a liking to them, she laughed to herself as an idea struck her.

The next day, she met up with Regina on a quiet street, and once Regina was satisfied that nobody was watching them, Emma pulled the bracelets out of her bag. Seeing the confused look on Regina’s face, she exclaimed ‘They’re our corsages- you know, for prom!’

‘You were being serious?’

‘Of course!’ Said Emma, fixing the bracelet onto Regina’s wrist.

Regina looked down at the jewellery and laughed ‘You’ve been angling for the matching jewellery since the double padlock idea, haven’t you Swan?’

‘Maybe.’ Emma grinned. ‘So, where does your mom think you are today?’

‘Dress shopping, for prom. I guess your fake prom might be necessary after all.’

‘I hope so, because I have something else to tell you. I went to see Mrs. Lucas yesterday, you know, of Granny’s Diner? She’s always been nice to me, and well, Ruby’s bi so you know she’s not homophobic or anything. So, I told her about us, and how we couldn’t go to prom because of your mom, who she can’t stand, and she was really sympathetic and said that we could use the diner to have our own dance.’

‘You told Granny about us!? But that’s so…’ Regina was going to say “irresponsible” or “stupid”, but looking into Emma’s eyes she couldn’t help but picture them slow dancing to the jukebox, and her expression softened ‘thoughtful’.

The pair had settled themselves on low wall, out of the way of the sidewalk, and both checked once more that there was nobody around before sharing a kiss.

‘We have to stop hanging out so obviously at school.’ Regina sighed.

‘I know. Listen, Ingrid said you can come round anytime. Why don’t you tell your mother you’re going for a sleepover and come over to mine?’

‘And sleep at yours?’

‘You’ve done it before. You’d probably have to take the couch again though- Ingrid’s cool with it, but not _that_ cool.’

‘That sounds great, how about Friday, I can say it’s to celebrate the end of the semester?’ 

* * *

As soon as the doorbell rang, Emma came charging down the stairs shouting ‘I’ve got it!’ and jumped the last step. When she opened the door, Regina was standing there holding a bottle of sparkling drink and dressed just as formal as ever, in a trendy pantsuit. The pair hadn’t touched each other in five days, but had spent every waking moment texting. Emma, finding that Regina had a soft spot for cute canines had sent the brunette every dog video she could find, and Regina had reciprocated with unlikely animal friendships, always claiming that she was whichever animal was the cutest. Emma pulled Regina through the doorway into a much-needed hug, but when Ingrid appeared, Regina pulled away. She approached Ingrid, intending to shake her hand, but Ingrid ignored the outstretched hand and embraced her like a mother. The warmth of this greeting took Regina by surprise, and her arms hung awkwardly at her side for a few seconds before she returned the hug.

The three of them walked through to the living room, where Regina raised her eyes at the sheer amount of junk food on the table. Ingrid suggested they watch _The_ _Devil_ _Wears_ _Prada_ and Emma and Regina heartily agreed; before long all three of them were howling with laughter as Regina announced for the tenth time that this was ‘the gayest film ever made’.

When the film was over, Regina offered to help clear some of the dishes from the table, and Ingrid noticed the bracelet she was wearing. ‘Why do you two have matching bracelets?’ she asked.

‘Because Emma’s a dork.’ Regina returned at once. ‘She doesn’t understand normal relationship milestones.’

Ingrid laughed lightly at Regina’s words, but was clearly distracted by a thought. ‘When I was a child, my sisters and I wore matching yellow ribbons; it was supposed to be a sign that we would always be there for one another.’ Said Ingrid, staring into the middle distance, suddenly, her eyes widened as an idea occurred to her. ‘Rumpelstiltskin, Rumpelstiltskin, Rumpelstiltskin!’


	6. New Realities

Before Emma even had time to wonder what the hell Ingrid was saying, a blinding light appeared in the middle of the room and she yelled in surprise and covered her eyes. When she looked again, the middle of the living room floor had been invaded by a large, ornate door which stood alone, unattached to anything. The door opened slightly, and the most unusual-looking person she had ever seen popped his head out and grinned at them. The stranger had curly hair which reached down to his chin, the pupils of his eyes were huge and dark, and his skin was glistening gold.

‘I knew you’d call eventually,’ said Rumpelstiltskin in an impish voice, ‘took you long enough, Deary! Come!’

Unlike the two teens, Ingrid seemed completely unsurprised by the appearance of this creature, but her voice was alive with excitement as she asked ‘Where does that door lead?’

‘A space between worlds; a place where we can talk. I borrowed the hat from an old friend.’ He said, looking pointedly at Regina. ‘Come, come!’

‘Will I be able to return?’ Asked Ingrid, casting a worried glance to Emma who was still sitting on the couch with her mouth hanging open in shock.

‘You are the one who called me, remember? You want something, and I can provide it.’ And seeing Ingrid was not yet convinced he continued. ‘You will have to return; it is the hat’s rule.’

‘Why can't we talk here?’ countered Ingrid, frowning.

‘I’m sure you have noticed by now, Deary, that this world has no room for magic of any kind. Since I am a creature of magic, I am unwelcome.’

This was the first bit of magic Ingrid had encountered for many years, and she could feel the stone in her pocket stir a little as it siphoned off some of the portal’s power; Elsa’s memories would not be lost. Ingrid turned to Emma and rested her hands on her arms, ‘I’ll be back, I promise. You girls just wait here.’ With this, Ingrid turned around and followed Rumpelstiltskin’s floating head through the door.

When the door closed behind Ingrid, the two girls were left standing in the middle of the room with just a huge, impossible door for company. Emma’s thoughts all seemed to be running into each other and crashing before they could come to any logical explanations. ‘She wasn’t crazy.’ Emma managed to say. ‘Or maybe she is, and now so am I.’

‘I can see it too.’ Said Regina, wrapping an arm around Emma for comfort. Unlike Emma, her eyes were glittering with excitement at the magical doorway. ‘Tell me we’re not just going to stand here and wait?’

Emma’s mind was still adjusting into accepting that everything Ingrid had said was true, and it took a few more seconds than normal to process what Regina was saying. ‘No, we’re not.’ She said as she put herself back together.

Regina strode confidently forward to the door and opened it, revealing the swirling portal inside, then she turned back to look at Emma and held out her hand. Emma took a deep breath before joining her hand with Regina’s and giving her a kiss for good luck. Together, they stepped through the portal. For a moment, everything was black and the only thing that existed for Emma was Regina’s hand in hers, then with their next step they emerged into a large, circular room. All around the edges of the circle were doors, each one different from the others, though not as different as the one through which they had just appeared; unlike the other doors, it looked damaged, as though it had been put there by brute force and did not truly belong.

Ingrid did not notice the teens come through the portal as she was deep in conversation with Rumpelstiltskin.

‘You said that you were expecting me to call you, what do you know?’ Ingrid asked, crossing her arms.

‘I needed somebody to visit that world for me, as I, unfortunately, could not.’ Replied the imp.

‘YOU sent me there!? So, that’s not the world I was supposed to go to?’ burst Ingrid, angry and excited all at once.

‘It is an alternative version of the world where your happy ending awaits, a happy ending which I will help you to find, despite your double-crossing.’ Said Rumpelstiltskin pointedly, ensuring that Ingrid understood she had little right to be angry. ‘You see Deary, there are countless different universes which exist simultaneously, some touch each other close enough that they are able to affect each other. This hat was built to connect all of the universes which exist close enough to our own for portals to be possible. The worlds which touch each other share the same sense of time, and are governed by similar rules. They also share the same Author.’

‘Author?’ Ingrid interrupted, trying hard to digest all of this information.

‘Indeed.’ The Dark One was pacing slowly as if giving a lecture. ‘The Authors have more power than we realize, but their jurisdiction is limited to certain universes. With some magic, and a little genius, I succeeded in diverting you on your travels to the realm of a different author.’

‘Why?’

Rumple stopped pacing and faced Ingrid to say, ‘Well, you know me Deary, I’m a collector; I wished to collect some treasure from that land.’

‘What could you possibly want from that world? You collect magic; there is no magic there.’

As if he had been waiting for Ingrid to ask this very question, Rumpelstiltskin smiled and answered, ‘Even in a land without magic, the natural powers exist. As luck would have it, the thing I want has followed you right into this very place.’

He waved a hand towards the teenagers who were hanging back by the edge, and Ingrid turned in surprise to see them for the first time. Emma gave Ingrid an apologetic look as she and Regina moved towards the center of the hat and the strange man presiding over it.

‘My my! What lovely bracelets you both have on Dearies; in fact, they are just the thing I’m after.’ Said the gold-skinned man as he reached out to hold Emma’s wrist.

Both girls backed away from him instinctively. ‘You want our bracelets?’ Began a confused Emma. ‘But they’re just nickel chains from the thrift store!’

Regina looked scandalized and couldn’t contain her exclamation, ‘I’m wearing thrift store jewellery!?’

‘The initial value of the object is unimportant.’ Rumple chimed in before Emma could try to babble an apology. ‘As I once explained to your adoptive mother here, with enough love, ordinary objects can assume great power. The magic which now exists in those bracelets is unmatched in the world’s I can reach, because of a particular power that the Authors hold. You see, one of the powers of the Author is to direct the path of true love, soulmates if you will, but when one discovers a different Author Realm, new possibilities arise. This is my price; two bracelets for the Snow Queen’s happy ending.’

Emma’s mind was working overtime to try to process everything that was happening, she found herself taking a moment to recite, in her head, all the new information she had just received. _Magic is real. There are other universes. People called Authors have some kind of power over our lives. The creepy man with huge irises thinks Regina and I are soulmates…_

The last thought rattled uncomfortably around her head until she had another thought, ‘Who’s the Snow Queen?’

Ingrid, who had been deep in worried thought, softened at this question and held out her right palm. ‘I am.’ She said as a beautiful snowflake appeared, suspended above her open hand. ‘I told you I was born a princess, didn’t I?’

‘So, what happens here exactly?’ Regina spoke for the first time since stepping through the portal. ‘We give this… person our bracelets and then what?’

‘Then, Deary, you three can trot back through that door into your world along with this magic bean. When you’ve all said your teary goodbyes, Icicles here can use the bean to take her to the world where her happy ending awaits; as I understand it, it is a land very similar to the one you have been in, so you should be well prepared.’

‘No.’ Ingrid stood between Rumple and the girls before they could do anything. ‘No deal. I once gave you my yellow ribbon because I didn’t trust in my family’s love, but now I finally understand; I don’t need to go searching for my happy ending, because my family is right here, and I will not let her give up on what makes her happy.’

‘Ingrid,’ Emma replied, tears now staining her cheeks, ‘your happiness is more important to me than a chain I bought five days ago; Regina and I will still have each other, we don’t need cheap jewellery to prove that. You are the only person who’s ever loved me and treated me like family, I know we always said that you were like my big sister, but you have cared for me, and fought for me like a mother. I will always love you for that, but I’m growing up now, and I can’t live with you forever, so if there is somewhere else that you are destined to be; if there is another version of me who needs somebody to fight for them, then I think you should go.’

Both Emma and Ingrid were crying openly now, and they melted into a tender hug full of gratitude for each other, Regina hovered next to them before Ingrid pulled her in to join the embrace. She removed the chain from her wrist and handed it to Emma with a squeeze of the hand. Emma took the chain from her own wrist and looped it around Regina’s just as she had done with the padlocks at the harbor, then she walked towards Rumpelstiltskin and placed them into his outstretched hand.

‘Thank you, Deary.’ He said to Emma before turning to Ingrid. ‘One magic bean, as promised; simply picture what is written on that scroll of yours and cast the bean onto the ground in front of you.’

Ingrid had taken the magic bean from Rumple with a polite ‘Thank you.’ Before she turned to Emma and said ‘Come, Emma, let’s go home.’

Ingrid, Emma and Regina had already begun to walk back towards the doorway when Rumpelstiltskin echoed the name he had just heard. ‘Emma.’ He repeated, as if trying it out. ‘What a lovely name. Where are your birth parents, Emma?’

‘I don’t know.’ Emma bristled at the question. ‘I don’t care; they abandoned me on the side of the road when I was a baby.’

‘Did they now?’ Rumple laughed. ‘Well, that _is_ interesting! Your world is strange to me, timelines just all over the place, but some things are universal truths. That you are the product of _twue_ love is obvious, so, whatever your parents’ stories are in this world, their reasons will be the same.’

‘Reasons?’

‘They wanted to give you your best chance, of course!’ 

* * *

When Ingrid, Emma and Regina stepped back into the living room, the door behind them faded and vanished with a small _pop_. The clock on the wall showed the time as 01.43 and besides the gentle ticking of the second hand, everything was dead silence.

‘If I don’t go now,’ Ingrid sighed ‘I don’t think I’ll have the strength to go at all.’ She looked at Emma with eyes full of sadness and regret.

‘Don’t worry,’ Regina said, putting a hand on Ingrid’s arm, ‘She’s got me. We’ll work something out, I’ve got some savings.’

‘Thank you, Regina.’ The Snow Queen replied. ‘I’ll leave you money of course, but if anybody finds out I’ve disappeared…’

‘They won’t, we’ll be careful.’ Emma assured her. ‘Regina’s right, I’ve got her, but if there is another Emma Swan alone out there somewhere, then she is going to need you.’

Ingrid smiled sadly and said, ‘I need to pack some things.’ Then she left the girls in the living room as she climbed the stairs to her room.

Regina took Emma’s hand in hers and steered her onto the couch where they sat holding each other close. ‘I know this is really soon,’ she said, ‘although, I don’t think we’re destined to do things slowly; I was thinking that maybe I could move in with you? I haven’t really told you everything that’s been going on at home, my mother has been getting worse, she doesn’t mean to, but I’m scared and with Ingrid gone you’ll be in this house all alone… just think about it?’

‘I don’t need to think about it,’ replied Emma, ‘if you don’t feel safe at home, then I don’t want you staying there, but it does mean that we’ll have to tell Cora about us.’

‘I know.’ Resigned Regina. ‘I have to tell her, but I’m so scared; what if she hurts you?’

‘I think you’re forgetting that we have the Snow Queen on our side.’ Emma chuckled as she tried to get used to the idea that her adoptive mother had ice powers.

* * *

When Ingrid came back downstairs, holding her recently-packed purse, Emma asked if they could make one detour before she left, and she let Regina explain her worries about Cora. When the doorbell rang for the fifth time, Cora Mills, dressed in a silk robe and wearing an expression of complete fury, snapped open her front door. Ingrid was standing on the doorstep, flanked by Emma and Regina close behind, and as soon as the door was open wide enough, she pushed her way in uninvited.

‘Sorry for disturbing you so late, but we have a little business to discuss. Sadly, your own daughter doesn’t trust you enough to be able to give you this news alone, but she and Emma are together. Now, I’m going to be out of town for a little while, and whilst I’m gone, Regina will be staying at my house.’

‘How dare you come into my house and tell me what my daughter is going to do!?’ Cora interrupted in a voice of astonishment.

‘Mother,’ Regina stepped forward, ‘you can accept that this is happening and let me go, or you can fight it and lose me forever, it is up to you.’

Cora tried to reach out for Regina but found herself blocked by Ingrid. ‘Darling, you have to understand, I always want what’s best for you, when you have children of your own you will do the same.’

‘_If_ I have a child, I will let them choose their own path in life.’

‘Your daughter is 18 years old,’ Ingrid cut in, ‘she does not need your permission, but I strongly suggest that if you don’t want to alienate her forever you give her your blessing.’

Cora still seemed shell-shocked by this home invasion, but perhaps she had recognised that there was some truth behind Ingrid’s words because she shrank back and nodded. ‘I’m sorry. She whimpered, with what seemed to be genuine sorrow, and Regina knew that she was talking about Mal.

Regina could feel the tears welling up behind her eyes again, so she quickly announced that she was going to pack some things from her room. Emma was curious to see what Regina’s bedroom looked like, so she accompanied her up the stairs. When the girls had disappeared, Ingrid reached inside her purse and pulled out a small, decorative book. It was a spell book, something she had carried with her ever since she had found it in the palace library in Arendelle. It had been many years since she had had any use for it, as she knew all of the spells by heart, and she now gave it to Cora.

‘I do understand why you have been clinging on to Regina.’ Said Ingrid. ‘This spell book has been with me most of my life, and I hope that you will find it a useful distraction when the pain of letting your daughter grow up is getting to you.’

It was a shame, Ingrid thought, to be giving away this prized possession to a person who could never hope to make any use of it; this would always be a world without magic, after all, but if it went any way towards keeping Emma and Regina safe, it would be worth it. 

* * *

The night was getting colder as Ingrid, Emma and Regina walked through the streets towards the harbor. They were heading for an abandoned warehouse as a place to use the magic bean, Ingrid was leading the way, clutching her purse which contained the few treasures she would bring with her into yet another new and unknown world, where she would hopefully meet another Emma Swan and finally complete the prophecy she had longed for for decades. Emma and Regina walked a couple of paces behind her, holding each other close, very aware that they had each let their parents go tonight, and had put all of their trust in each other.

When they entered the warehouse, and said their final goodbyes, Emma realized there was one thing left for her to say.

‘I hope you find your Emma Swan, and that she realizes how awesome you are. I wanted to give you this back,’ Emma pulled the memory stone from her inside pocket, ‘but you need to promise me you will only use it as a last resort. Just take her to the arcade, and hopefully, if the prophecy works out, when she wins a toy it will really be magic.’

‘I promise.’ Ingrid cried.

With one final round of embraces, Ingrid cast the magic bean into the middle of the warehouse floor and leapt into its swirling center. 

* * *

By the time Emma and Regina had walked back home, it was 3am, and they were both exhausted, Regina asked Emma where she could get fresh sheets to put on Ingrid’s bed, and then, suddenly realizing that that might be a slightly insensitive thing to ask quickly added that she could just sleep on the couch if that was better. Emma had clung onto Regina’s arm for the entire walk home and she now into her eyes nervously.

‘Would it be ok if… I don’t want to be alone tonight.’ Emma said delicately.

‘Nor do I.’ Regina replied, and they walked the corridor to Emma’s room together. Once inside, they stripped to their underwear, exhaustion leaving no room for self-consciousness or modesty, and they hid themselves under the blankets. Once their arms had found each other and their bodies lay against one another, Emma said, ‘I’ve been thinking about what that weird man said about my birth parents. If there is any chance that they had a good reason to abandon me, I think I’d like to try to find out. Maybe if I go to Boston, I can find some more information about where they found me.’

Regina, who was still trying to find a comfortable place to put her left arm slid it gently underneath Emma’s stomach and nestled her head inside Emma’s long, blonde curls. ‘I think that’s a good idea,’ she purred into Emma’s ear, ‘Now that the semester’s finished, it might be good for us to get out of town for a bit.’


	7. Domestic Thieves

The next morning, Regina was the first to wake. It became clear that the reason for this was that Emma, used to having the bed to herself, had managed to spread across its entirety and steal all of the blanket.

The clock showed the time as 09.17, so Regina decided to jump in the shower. The house still felt strange, even to her, without Ingrid in it, and Regina could only imagine how hard it must have been for Emma to say goodbye. As the water ran through her hair, Regina wondered how she would feel leaving her own mother behind as she and Emma set off to find her birth parents. Of course, they’d have to come back- Emma had a whole other year at school yet, but there was no way Regina could live with her mother after all this.

What would they do for money? There was the money Ingrid had left, but that wouldn’t last forever, Regina had a lot of savings in the bank, but Cora would probably freeze them if she left town. Suddenly Regina had an idea. Drying herself as quickly as she could, she left a note on Emma’s bedside table which said “Back soon xx”, quietly got dressed and headed towards main street.

First, she stopped at the bank and drew out as much money as they’d let her and then she headed to the car dealership. The manager was wary of selling to a teenager alone, but it so happened that he had one car which he was keen to get rid of. The little yellow bug had been left in his possession under dubious circumstances and with a little of Regina’s charm and bank card, he helped her through the paperwork and gave her the keys.

By the time she got back, Emma had woken up, and hearing the car pull up she opened the window and leaned out.

‘What did you do?’ She laughed, seeing Regina get out of the yellow bug.

‘Happy birthday, Swan!’

‘When is my birthday?’ Emma asked, folding her arms over her chest.

Regina hadn’t even realized she didn’t know this and panicked as she looked back up at Emma. ‘I bet you don’t know mine either!’

Emma knew that Regina would turn the question around and was ready with her answer. ‘It’s February 1st. Unlike you, I actually pay attention to other people’s birthdays!’

“Ha! Well unlike _you_, I don’t take up the whole bed and steal the blanket!’

Emma and Regina spent the day packing up their things, exploring the cellar and finding maps and flashlights. By late afternoon they had everything ready to go and had planned a route to Boston to try to find some information about Emma’s birth parents. They ordered a pizza and sat in the living room eating it. They were surrounded by all the things they had chosen to leave behind, dumped, discarded all around the room. Emma’s diary, which had been rescued from Regina’s old bedroom, lay in the discard pile, underneath the basket of food they had decided not to bring, it was so messy, but in their excitement, the girls hadn’t noticed. At the very least, they took the pizza boxes out to the bins before getting in the car.

They hadn’t been driving long before Emma said ‘Wrong way, Regina.’

Regina grinned and said ‘I have a little detour planned first.’

With everything that had happened, Emma had completely forgotten that the school prom was that night. When Regina pulled into the school car park, her eyes widened in horror.

‘The dance? Regina, I’m wearing jeans!’

But Regina was on a mission and she smiled so broadly that she seemed to radiate happiness. She pulled Emma by the hand into the school hall, past Killian Jones who was trying, and failing, to flirt with Ruby, past Regina’s old girl gang who were hanging uselessly from the arms of their trophy dates. Most of the students barely had time to stop and stare before Emma and Regina were right in the center of the dance floor, when they got there, Regina gave the crowd just enough time to stop what they were doing and stare, before she pulled Emma in for a kiss.

The kiss was glorious. The ones they had shared before had been beautiful and intimate, but this public, unashamed version gave Emma a kind of rush she had never felt before. She had spent a lot of her life trying to go unnoticed, but now she found that she revelled in the spotlight. Knowing that everybody knew that Regina was with her felt better than she could have possibly imagined. Her right arm found its place on Regina’s shoulder as her left explored her lower back, meanwhile Regina was holding Emma’s chin and gently stroking her arm. When they split apart, they held each other close still and moved together to the music. The moment was perfect, until Mr. Spencer tapped Emma on the shoulder.

‘Miss Swan, Miss Mills. This is a formal dance; jeans are not acceptable.’ He looked at Regina ‘And skirts should be below the knee. You may stay and enjoy this beautiful night if you find something more appropriate to wear, perhaps in the drama department.’

The two girls laughed as they moved to follow his instructions. The drama department was behind the stage, but as they walked through the wings, Emma got distracted. On a small table sat two crowns and two sashes sitting on top. Emma picked up the crown closest to her which read “Prom Queen” and placed it on Regina’s head. Then she added the matching sash, before donning her own “Prom King” apparel. The items were meant to be given to whichever students were voted to be the most popular, but Emma couldn’t help thinking that she and Regina deserved them more. Regina was clearly thinking along the same lines because she embraced Emma and whispered in her ear, ‘Shall we get out of here?’

Emma nodded, spreading her arms before her and said ‘After you, Your Majesty.’

By the time anybody noticed the crowns were missing, the self-proclaimed Prom King and Queen were already driving through New Hampshire in their little yellow bug.


End file.
